Chinese car sales were down 13.6 percent in February, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers CAAM says. However, Chinese New Year threw everything out of whack. One need to look at January and February, and for the two months, sales rose 14.7 percent.

Last year, the Chinese New Year was in January, and car sales boomed in February, despite it being a short month. This year it was in February, but does that mean March will boom, or did we see a booming January in anticipation of the February festivities?